Tiny rice pest discovered

Boris Castro, LSU AgCenter entomologist, has discovered a new pest of rice – a tiny fly.

And Howard Cormier, LSU AgCenter county agent in Vermilion Parish, said the insect’s damage was devastating on two fields he inspected last year.

Castro said the pest has so far been referred to as the rice whorl maggot because of its similarity to a fly in Asia that afflicts rice fields there. But he said a taxonomist at the Smithsonian Institution has concluded this fly probably is a new, unidentified species.

Castro said research this year will include spraying different insecticides, which are already labeled for other rice pests, on test plots where the insect is found.